Monday, April 13, 2009

In search of the a real “Doyen”!

Delhi School of Economics Prof Pulin B Nayakwrites in today’s ET that “Prof Chelliah was decidedly different. Nor did he have any propensity towards or time for political sloganeering. He wanted to employ the body of academic knowledge in the era of post-Keynesian macroeconomic and fiscal policy making to make a difference to the human condition in his home country. But for this it was vital that he must return home.”

Except the tax reform he is not able to site a single research paper which breaks the usual thoughts of other Indian economists. I never heard (I am may be mistaken) of telling anyone that Prof Chelliah was a great Indian reform team! Even when he was alive forget about now.

I respect him a lot as a human being but I am unable to take any of his ideas/suggestions. Of course he was not outside of socialist economists as Mr Nayak writes “He wanted to employ the body of academic knowledge in the era of post-Keynesian macroeconomic”s.

Further, Mr Nayak says quite unconvincingly that “The only thing that ever mattered was the academic merit of an individual, regardless of region, linguistic background, sex, religion or caste.” I guess, he perhaps never heard of what one of greatest 20th century economists and economics Nobel laureate F A Hayek said“Differences in wealth, education, tradition, religion, language or race may today become the cause of differential treatment on the pretext of a pretended principle of social justice or of public necessity. Once such discrimination is recognised as legitimate, all the safeguards of individual freedom of the liberal tradition are gone”.